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Forbes: Top 10 Food Trends For 2012

Do you have a healthy diet? Click here to check out which ten foods have the most nourishment.

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Bison This All-American (not to mention lean, low cholesterol and grass-fed) meat is gaining in popularity beyond its traditional home on the range. Long a favorite in cities like Denver (where Kachina Southwestern Grill uses it in meatballs, tacos, smoked meatloaf and a jerky-crusted tenderloin), bison can now be found in distinctly non-cowboy towns. DMK Burger Bar in Chicago features a bison burger with goat cheese, pickled red onions and blueberry barbecue sauce. And LA-based burger chain the Counter is adding bison burgers in 2013 (pictured), alongside its traditional choices of beef, turkey, chicken breast and veggie burgers.

(The Counter)

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Bitters “There are very few drinks that can't be improved by a dash of the right type of bitters,” says Josh Pearson, head bartender of Sepia in Chicago, perfuming cocktails with unexpected aromas. Those types have expanded exponentially with flavors spanning apple to chocolate, grapefruit to jerk, tiki to yuzu citron. Bartenders started the trend by making their own bitters, and now home cocktail enthusiasts are following suit (a “Build Your Own Bitters” seminar sold out at the Feast Portland festival). Or buy them off the shelf from small producers like Bittercube, Bittermens, and Bittertruth. Pictured: Robert Ferrara of the Dutch in Miami Beach creates his prizewinning English Rose cocktail, winner at New York’s Cocktail Classic.

(Photo via Forbes)

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Infused Pastas Move over, squid ink. New pasta-making machines are turning chefs into, well, pasta-making machines, using purées to infuse pastas with new flavors. Kelly Liken, of the eponymous Vail, CO eatery, creates carrot tortellini, agnolotti of black trumpet mushrooms, and lemon hazelnut garganelli (pictured, with chanterelle mushrooms foie gras butter and fine herbes). At Bocca Di Bacco in New York, chef Kristin Sollenne incorporates vegetable purées such as eggplant, chestnut, and spinach. And at Boston’s Craigie on Main, chef Tony Maws infuses pastas with plankton, green olive, and even prosciutto.

(Restaurant Kelly Liken)

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Kid Foods for Gr... “Nothing is better than nostalgia,” says Chris Ford, executive pastry chef of Wit & Wisdom in Baltimore. Years after mac & cheese ushered in the comfort food craze, adults are craving ever more gourmet – and, let's be frank, tweaked – versions of favorites of their youth. Look for bacon-flavored caramel corn from LA’s Tar & Roses and grownup sloppy Joes coast to coast (Jose Melendez at LA’s Boa Steakhouse starts with short ribs). Portland’s Random Order Pie Bar does savory pies, including some boozy ones: veggie pot pie made with Cavatica stout (plus a bourbon pecan pie for dessert). Speaking of dessert, San Francisco’s BlackJet Baking Co’s best sellers are PoPs (pictured), its riff on Pop Tarts, some in flavors Kellogg’s never heard of (eg. nutella & salty hazelnut, jalapeno cream cheese, and pumpkin). Ford, meanwhile, says his CCC (for “chocolate, coconut and caramel”) became an instant hit “because it is like an Almond Joy in a bowl.”

(Paige Green)

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Local Trumps Org... “The term ‘organic’ has become so watered down as to be almost meaningless,” says Scott Dolich of Park Kitchen and the Bent Brick in Portland. Over and over, chefs told us that ingredients from their local sources are farmed using organic methods, yet organic certification is cost-prohibitive for most of these small farms. So rather than buy certified organic, the LA-based salad mini-chain Tender Greens’ co-owner Erik Oberholtzer is one of many restaurateurs focusing on “supporting small, local farmers with whom we have direct relations with and trust the practices they employ.” There are taste implications too. “Organic food can come from anywhere and will often make a long trip on a truck, train, or airplane to its final destination,” says Chef Jacob Cureton of the Range Kitchen in San Diego, “therefore reducing its shelf-life and nutritional value.” Executive Chef Manuel Trevino of Marble Lane in New York sums it up: “Why buy organic if it comes from across the world and leaves a gigantic eco footprint behind?”

(Getty Images)

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Natural & Organi... “When selecting certain wines and producers, I try to prioritize those who are respectful of the environment during the production process,” says chef/sommelier Andre Compeyre of Benoit New York. Bretton Lammi, sommelier at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, calls natural and organic wines “a win-win for the environment and for the end consumer.” You probably already love some of these wines without knowing how they're made, and eliminating pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers in winemaking, he says, “keeps these chemicals out of the water table and rivers and stops the endless cycle of constantly adding more nutrients to the soil because of what was stripped from it by the synthetic additives.” Don’t expect an all organic industry anytime soon, though. “We still have all the French ‘classics’ on our list, that aren’t necessarily classified as organic but remain our most sought after,” Compeyre says.

(Getty Images for JUSTIN Vineyard)

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Non-Bacon Say a bad word about bacon these days, and you might as well be insulting someone’s momma. So forgive us when we say that bacon’s pervasiveness has gotten a bit much. Fortunately, chefs are crisping up cracklings from a menagerie of other animals: chicken (the fried skins are called gribenes in traditional Yiddish cooking), duck, salmon, lamb, Mexican-style chicharrón (crisped pork fat), even scallops. Since they should be eaten sparingly (they are fat, after all), “using these items on salads as a texture garnish is the way to go,” says Edward Leonard, vice president for culinary education at Cordon Bleu cooking schools. Executive chef Nicholas Bour of Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Diego dissents on this trend: “Yes, it tastes great, but the trend should be dwindling as consumers and diners continue to educate themselves on healthy eating.” Pictured: chicharrón with citrus baby arugula salad at Wynwood Kitchen & Bar in Miami.

(Wynwood Kitchen & Bar)

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Peruvian as the ... “It's the talk of the food trades,” says Maggie Nemser, founder of the restaurant review and deal site BlackboardEats. Credit Chef Ricardo Zarate with energizing the Peruvian food trend at his LA restaurants MoChica (opened 2009) and Picca (2011). Chef Kevin Humphreys of Teton Mountain Lodge in Jackson Hole, WY explains "Peruvian cuisine is melting pot of flavors and techniques.” Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and indigenous Andean all fit in - in preps from potato cakes to stir-fried noodles, skewers to ceviche. Look for ingredients as diverse as yuzu, sweet potatoes (and dozens of other potato varieties), chilies, wasabi, quinoa, tomato, pumpkin and soy sauce beef – any of which might be topped with a fried egg. Chefs nationwide are running with this creative cooking, such as Richard Sandoval at his newest venture, Raymi in New York City.

(Jen SFO-BCN)

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Seaweed “Next to kale chips, seaweed chips and crackers seem to be everywhere in higher-end supermarkets,” says Anne McBride, director of culinary programs at the Culinary Institute of America. But it’s not just for snacking or sushi bars. With species including agar agar, dulse, hijiki, nori, ogo, kombu, wakame and more (“each with very different flavor profiles and health benefits,” says Tony Shure of Chop’t Creative Salad Company, with locations in New York and Washington), the combinations are virtually endless. Chef Bradley Miller of the Inn of the Seventh Ray in LA says “Seaweed has become such a staple in our restaurant that most don't even know we’re using it, and they’re enjoying it.” Sea greens have even migrated far from the oceans; at 112 Eatery in Minneapolis, the sirloin is encrusted with nori and served with ponzu.

(Jeff Kubina)

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Water Purified a... Using highly effective filtration systems like Natura, Nordaq Fresh and Vivreau, many top restaurants are purifying and bottling tap water on site and serving it at no additional cost to customers. “It really started with the quality of the water,” says Chef Thomas Keller of Per Se, Bouchon, the French Laundry and more, who uses the Nordaq Fresh system, but there are plenty of other benefits from more taste to less waste. “Most importantly, it fits in with our LEED platinum approach,” says Ross Wheatley of Lucy Restaurant & Bar, Yountville, CA. “No bottle waste, no carbon footprint and no shipping involved for expensive imported waters.” It’s also realigning diner expectations: “I hear of others charging for this water and I cringe,” says Mark Estee owner/chef of Campo in Reno, NV.

(Thinkstock)

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The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Comcast.
More from Forbes... Do you have a healthy diet? Click here to check out which ten foods have the most nourishment.

(Steve Ryan/Getty Images)